


Settling In

by DianaLeto89



Series: Stargate Vignettes [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Family, Returning Home, settling in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 14:50:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6243967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaLeto89/pseuds/DianaLeto89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel and Vala are back after a being held prisoner. They try to find their place back on Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Settling In

**Author's Note:**

> This can stand alone or be a sequel to my other story "Beacon Home".

Daniel sat at the large table in his lab, his chin resting on the knuckles of his left hand, and stared blankly at the stone tablet before him. His forehead was deeply creased in concentration. His glasses lay before him, cast aside when he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. The normally noisy lab was silent, filled only with the heaviness of Daniel’s thoughts. His mind was racing a million miles a second and he looked to be in a different world entirely.

Sam walked by the opened door and glanced in seeing him staring vacantly at the table top. She stopped her forward momentum and turned to lean into the doorway.

“Hey Daniel, what’s up?” When he didn’t respond or make any indication that he’d heard her she grew concerned. She walked in and approached his side. Looking down at the table she saw the stone tablet that had been sitting on his table for the last week. Sam looked back at her friend and frowned. “Daniel?”

“What?” He looked up at his friend and raised both of his eyebrows. “Oh, yeah sorry I was just,” he frowned, “thinking.”

When he didn’t elaborate Sam bumped him with her shoulder and smiled. “Daniel? You were thinking….”

He shrugged. “I’ve been gone for a long time. Longer than I ever have before. I just don’t know if I can fit back in. Three years is a long time. Maybe, maybe it’s too long.”

Sam slowly rubbed the area between his shoulder blades both to comfort him and to give her a chance to think of what to say to that. Finally, her hand stilled on his shoulder and she spoke. “I know it isn’t going to be easy but we’ve had a lot of people come through here who started fresh after something terrible happened. There are so many people here who can relate to what you and Vala and the kids are going through. You have so many friends here who will support you.”

Daniel sighed and put his hand on top of Sam’s. “I know I’m not alone and I know I’m safe but… I just can’t quite shake the feeling that the other shoe is about to drop. That something terrible is going to happen. That, that the next big bad something or someone is going to show up and I’m going to die, or Vala will _, again_.” He choked out the next part with a shake of his head. “I don’t even want to think about something happening to one of the kids.” Silent tears were streaming down his face. He removed his hand from hers and ran both of them down his face. He placed them in his lap and began twiddling his fingers. Sam supressed a smile at seeing him unknowingly mimicking Vala.

“It’s not that I don’t think I can find my place here. That’s not what worries me. What worries me is that I might. That I’ll find my place here again and I’ll go out there and I’ll risk my life, just like I always do, and my family will suffer because of that.” He squeezed his eyes closed, forcing large tears to rush down his face and drop to his chest. The shirt already marked with many tears.

“Vala and I were talking.” He cleared his throat. “We were talking about whether or not we want to come back and be active.” He took a deep breath. “SG-1 has already replaced us, and we could share our skills with other teams if we were on stand-by, and we could be home to the kids almost every night. We could work it so that at least one of us always home. We could do that. We could.” Daniel finally looked at Sam and she could see just how much this was taking out of him. “Sam, we don’t want to leave, this is our _home_ , but, but we _can’t_ go back to the way things were.” She reached forward and wiped a tear from his face. Her cool hand soothing on his emotionally warmed skin. “No more dangerous missions, no more saving the galaxy if someone else can do it, no more dying.”

He finally let the tears flow freely and Sam pulled him into a comforting hug. “Daniel,” she soothed, “It’s okay. Things change and you have three of the cutest people in the galaxy to think about right now. You and Vala have been through so much. I just, I am going to be selfish and tell you that I’m happy you aren’t leaving entirely. I want you to stay because you’re like a brother to me and Vala is, quite possibly, the best friend I have ever had. When you were gone,” her throat was uncomfortably tight, “when we couldn’t get to you, it was like losing part of who I am.  You five are my family.” She swiped at a tear of her own. “Cam and Teal’c and Jack all feel the same way. We’re here for you. You do what you need for your family and we’ll be there to help.” She smiled warmly at him. Daniel let out a small laugh and smiled back.

***

Vala walked through the corridors of the SGC heading toward the commissary for lunch with Daniel. The last seven months back after their rescue had been trying. Daniel’s apartment wasn’t big enough for the five of them so they had to shop around. That meant they had to stay on base until they found something. Then when they finally found something after a few weeks of living on base they had to go shopping for furniture, clothing, food, appliances, a car with enough seats. The list of things they needed was endless.

Daniel had an impressive amount of back-pay, Vala as well, so money wasn’t the issue. It was just overwhelming to be around so many people, out in the open after so much time. The girls loved every second. Mara, in all of her seven years, had never had candy until she was aboard the _George Hammond_. Seeing an entire store dedicated to her new favourite snack was a life changing moment for her. Zalina, like every other six-year-old, was beyond excited when they happened upon the shop where you can make your own stuffed bear. The little fireman bear was tucked under her arm for the remainder of their trip to the mall for clothes and shoes.

Her one consolation was that four-year-old Silas was more interested in napping in his stroller or playing with his Black Widow action figure than he was of anything else. She was thankful that he hadn’t decided to have melt down or beg for things in the store. He was a little old for a stroller but developmentally he wasn’t as far along as Dr. Lam was hoping. She had referred him to a developmental psychologist in Colorado Spring last week. Silas had taken well to her and she was hopeful that he would be able to overcome the troubles of his early life in the, uh, ‘orphanage.’

As Vala turned the corner and entered the commissary she caught sight of Daniel sitting at their usual table with Cam and Sgt. Haymaker (Daniel’s replacement on SG-1). It was so strange seeing him sitting there like that last four years hadn’t happened. His hair had some silver in it now and his face held more lines but he was the same Daniel, _her_ Daniel. As though he could feel her enter he looked over and smiled at her. She waved and made her way to him, seeing food already waiting for her.

Things were finally coming together. Their children were getting ready to start school in a week, they had _finally_ selected a nanny from the various ones approved by the SGC, and General Landry had approved their requests to be put on rotation but remain as primarily base staff. She sat down next to him, snuggling into his side as his arm came around her and he pressed a quick kiss to her temple. In that moment every single cell in her body felt at peace. Cam smiled at her and she smiled back before turning her attention to what Daniel and Haymaker were talking about.

As voices filled the space around them she realized that her family was finally doing it; they were finally settling in.


End file.
